Inside AICPA

Inside AICPA

Get CPE results quicker…AICPA updates SOX issues for states…Institute suggests IRS taxpayer advocacy improvements…Becton named media relations head…Committee supports curbs on tax shelter abuse…Institute advises companies on promoting women…Competency assessment aid offered…CPAs helping one another…Four win Sells awards.

Faster CPE Results
AICPA members who take the Institute’s self-study courses now can go online to get tested and receive their grades in real time (www.aicpa.org/cpe/cpegrading). In addition, once they’ve passed a course, students can download and/or print electronic copies of their course-completion certificates. The new capabilities are available for courses in print, video and DVD formats.

AICPA Updates Summary of State Reform Issues
The Institute’s special committee on state regulation distributed to state CPA society chief executives, presidents and legislative staff the second edition of A Reasoned Approach to Reform, its overview of state issues related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Replacing an earlier edition, issued in January, it will be useful for educating state society members, state legislators, regulators and federal executive branch officials about the implications of imposing Sarbanes-Oxley-like provisions at the state level. The new version includes changes in the sections on audit partner rotation, state board of accountancy composition and peer review. It also adds an issue brief on professional ethics. The special committee is available to help state societies minimize at the state level the “cascade” effect of federal legislative, regulatory and executive branch actions resulting from passage of the act. More information on the committee and its work is available at www.aicpa.org/statelegis/index.asp.

Institute Names Becton Chief Press Officer
In October the AICPA appointed Robert J. Becton its vice-president of media relations. As the Institute’s external communications strategist, he will develop and implement plans to communicate the organization’s themes on a consistent and timely basis to local, national and international news media. Becton and his staff will be responsible for media relations, financial and crisis communications and issues management. He has more than 20 years’ experience in public relations with companies such as Burson-Marsteller and, for most of his career, has represented financial services institutions including Moody’s Investors Service, HSBC Group and J.P. Morgan & Co.

Institute Proposes Taxpayer Advocacy Improvements
In a September 23 letter to the IRS national taxpayer advocate, the AICPA tax executive committee suggested ways to improve local taxpayer advocacy offices’ service, which its members said had deteriorated (www.cpa2biz.com/ResourceCenters/Tax/Tax+Practice/LocalTaxpayerAdvocate.htm). In a 1999 AICPA survey, 72% of respondents said the technical assistance these offices had given them was “good” or “excellent.” But CPAs recently polled said some offices were less effective than others, leading the committee to call for improvements in employee training and to propose the IRS use practitioners to educate taxpayer advocate service staff in “best practices” for resolving casework issues.

AICPA Urges End to Abusive Tax Shelters
Exploitative tax shelters are an insult to honest taxpayers and their CPA advisers, the Institute’s tax executive committee said in a letter to Senator Charles E. Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who is proposing legislation to curtail such arrangements. Besides supporting Grassley’s position, the AICPA letter also noted that “deterrence from and the eventual eradication of abusive transactions are best accomplished through disclosure, higher nondisclosure penalties, clearer standards for reasonable cause penalty relief and opinion letters, aggressive enforcement and continued evolution of appropriate solutions by an informed judiciary” (www.aicpa.org/download/members/div/tax/grassley_letter.pdf).

Institute Supports Women in Business
In an alliance with Catalyst, a research and advisory group established to advance professional women’s career prospects, the AICPA Career Center at www.cpa2biz.com/career is offering companies practical advice on how to recruit, retain and promote women in finance. It also will provide women themselves with tools for reaching their full professional potential.

AICPA Software Gives CPAs Career Edge
The Institute has created an online Competency Self-Assessment Tool (CAT) (https://www.cpa2biz.com/CPE/CAT.htm) to help CPAs evaluate their qualifications for future positions in business and industry, auditing, government, personal financial planning and elder care, as well as fraud prevention, detection and investigation. CAT enables practitioners to identify specific competencies and suggests various learning activities for developing additional proficiency in them.

CPAs Helping One Another
Since the 1930s the AICPA Benevolent Fund has aided members facing medical and financial hardships when personal savings and government assistance are limited or unavailable. The fund assists with the cost of medications, therapy and/or daily expenses. At least twice a year the board of trustees of the Benevolent Fund assesses the ongoing needs of fund recipients based on updated information provided by current and new recipients. To learn more about the Benevolent Fund’s work, contact Elizabeth Cich of the AICPA at 201-938-3490 or ecich@aicpa.org.

The AICPA Benevolent Fund also is accepting donations, which are deductible from your 2003 taxes if made by December 31, to help it continue providing financial assistance to needy Institute members and their families. Contributions can be sent to the AICPA Cashier, Harborside Financial Center, 201 Plaza Three, Jersey City, New Jersey 07311.

Chicago Candidate Tops Field on CPA Exam
Amy Lynn Adelmann of Deloitte’s assurance and advisory services practice in Chicago won the Elijah Watts Sells gold medal by earning the highest score among the approximately 50,000 candidates who sat for the CPA exam in May. The other Sells awards went to Roger Dunaway III of Antioch, Tennessee—who placed second, winning a silver medal—and Debra Keim of O’Fallon, Missouri, and Soo Jin Kim of Seoul, South Korea—who tied for the third-place bronze medal.